Team-level high-performance work systems, self-efficacy and creativity: differential moderating roles of person–job fit and goal difficulty

Research has examined firm- or unit-level high-performance work systems (HPWS) and impacts on firm, unit, or individual outcomes. Relatively few works have examined how team-level HPWS works together with individual-level factors to shape individual creativity. Grounded in social cognitive theory and the interactionist model of creativity, this study posits and tests the thesis that team-level HPWS and individual-level job characteristics jointly influence individual creativity via individual self-efficacy. We collected multi-source and multi-level data from 321 employees of 75 teams and their direct managers in China. Results show that team-level HPWS interacts with individual-level person–job fit and goal difficulty to influence self-efficacy and, subsequently, creativity. Specifically, individual employee's person–job fit (P–J fit) and goal difficulty moderate the positive indirect relationship of team-level HPWS with creativity through employee self-efficacy, such that it is stronger when P–J fit is high or when goal difficulty is low. We extend research on HPWS and creativity by revealing P–J fit and goal difficulty as individual-level boundary conditions for the effect of team-level HPWS.